Traceable Down Standard (TDS) — detail
Also known as: TDS, Patagonia Traceable Down, 100% Traceable Down
Particularly strict down standard introduced by Patagonia in 2014, with full traceability down to individual parent birds and a ban on live-plucking including for parent flocks.
Description
The Traceable Down Standard (TDS) is an in-house Patagonia standard, mandatory for the brand since 2014 and developed with NSF International. TDS emerged from criticism that the standard RDS prohibits live-plucking and force-feeding at the fattening farm but does not always fully cover the upstream parent farms where, historically, live-plucking for feather harvest was more common.
TDS extends control to all parent farms, demands veterinary evidence excluding force-feeding, and works with a very narrow supplier network (essentially a few certified Hungarian and Polish farms). Critics note that Patagonia uses the standard exclusively and it is not scalable industry-wide; supporters call it a „gold standard" above RDS. For claims like „100 % traceable to parent farm", TDS is currently the clearest reference on the market.
- Extends RDS principles to parent farms
- No live-plucking, including of breeding flocks
- Traceability down to individual farm lots
- Developed and used exclusively by Patagonia; not industry-wide
Properties
| Standard owner | Patagonia (with NSF International) |
|---|---|
| Extension vs. RDS | Control up to parent farm |
| Suppliers | Very small, controlled circle (HU, PL) |
| Usage | Exclusive to Patagonia |
Related product categories
Sources & references
2- Patagonia: Traceable Down patagonia.com https://www.patagonia.com/our-footprint/traceable-down.html
- NSF International nsf.org https://www.nsf.org/
